People in DH&S: Jack H. Vaughan;

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PEOPLE IN DH&S: Jack M.\kighan
Achievement is to Jack Vaughan as a hit is
to a ball player; a single is never satis­factory
when, with just a little extra effort, it
could have been a home run. As a thirty-year-
old whose present responsibilities in­clude
those of Houston office partner, tax
specialist, Texas Bar member, noted
speaker, award-winning writer, husband, and
father of two, Jack M. Vaughan has demon­strated
his ability to get the most mileage out
of everything he does. Making that extra ef­fort
is simply his way of life.
Seated comfortably behind the paper-laden
desk of his twenty-fifth floor office,
Jack spoke at length of how past efforts
brought him to his present position of tax
partner at DH&S Houston. Though his man­ner
seemed casual, his carefully prepared
notes and well-chosen phrases were any­thing
but haphazard. In being interviewed, as
in all his endeavors, Jack Vaughan strives for
precision.
It was that same desire for precision
that motivated Jack to specialize in tax.
"Specialization is increasingly critical in ac­counting
today," he said. "In fact, each as­pect
of the field is so complex at this point
that even the specialist must narrow down
his or her focus and concentrate on only one
or two subspecialties. In tax, as in most
areas, a broad base of experience is needed
in the early years. But once this base is es­tablished,
it's advantageous - both for the
individual and for the firm - for areas of
specialization to be developed."
Within the field of tax, Jack pointed out,
there are many areas of potential specializa­tion.
Depending on both demand for services
and personal inclination, tax specialists may
choose to focus on a particular industry —
such as banking or retailing - or on a techni­cal
tax subject, reorganization or liquidation,
for example. Community property taxation is
an area of particular interest and concentra­tion
for Jack.
In Jack's opinion, specialization is not
only an effective way of increasing his own
precision, but also a powerful tool for market­ing
the firm's services. "We need to demon­strate
to potential clients that we are
accounting experts," he explained, "not just
by our general reputation, but by our specific
knowledge of procedures pertaining to their
own industries and areas of interest."
Speaking and writing are other market­ing
tools that, in Jack's experience, have
proved invaluable. "These are incredibly ef­fective
ways of informing the financial
community and potential client groups that
DH&S has the expertise that they want and
need and is ready to serve them," he said.
"After all, you can be the world's foremost
expert in an area, but if nobody knows it,
you've only gone halfway. It's only through
visibility that we can make our reputation
known."
As a man who has written dozens of ar­ticles
for publication in various magazines
and journals, and who has delivered numer­ous
talks before professional and academic
audiences, Jack is clearly a believer in the
power of visibility. His first article, "Tax
Aspects of the Professional Corporation in
Texas," was written in 1973 while he was
still in law school. "Actually, it was a paper
for a business planning course that I was
taking," Jack explained. "I had no intention
of having it published. But, because my
work at the firm just then happened to per­tain
to the topic of the paper, I decided to
give it a try."
The fact that Jack's article was pub-
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